Montevideo, Uruguai - February 2nd - 3rd 2002

DRAFT MINUTES

Attendance list

Council Members
B. Stephen Carpenter, Chairman, SIM Technical Committee, (NIST)
Oscar Harasic, SIM Executive Secretary, (OAS)
Ismael Castelazo, Chairman, SIM Technical Committee, (CENAM)
Yoshito Mitani, Chairman, SIM Professional Development Committee, (CENAM)
Luis Mussio, SURAMET, Coordinator, (LATU)
Hermon Edmondson, CARIMET, Coordinator, (JBS)
Willie May, NORAMET, Coordinator, (NIST)
Carlos Roberto Ochoa, CAMET Coordinator, (CONACYT)
João A. Herz da Jornada, on behalf of Armando Mariante, Former SIM President, (INMETRO)
Paulo Ferracioli, SIM Secretary, (INMETRO)

Invited Observers:
Evelyn de Vanegas, (CONACYT)

AGENDA

1. Introduction and Welcome / Introducción y Bienvenida
2. Verification of Quorum / Verificación de Quórum
3. Approval of Agenda / Aprobación de Agenda
4. Approval of the Minutes from previous Council Meeting /Aprobación de la Acta de la Reunión Anterior del Consejo
5. Matters arising from the Minutes / Asuntos derivados de la Acta
6. Approval of the minutes of PDC meeting in Miami / Aprobación de la Acta de la Reunión del PDC en Miami
7. OAS project preparation for fiscal year 2003 / Preparación del Proyecto de OAS por eyercicio económico 2003
8. Preparation of the work plan and detailed budget for the year / Preparación del plan de trabajo y del presupuesto detallado por el año
9. Scholarship proposal to train technical staff for NMI's / Propuesta del beca para entrenar al personal técnico para NMI's
10. Proposal of Cooperation with PTB / Propuesta de cooperación con PTB
11. Definition of Regional Key and Supplementary Comparisons / Definición del comparaciones clave y suplementario regionales
12. SIM Policy for the Quality Issue / Política del SIM para la edición de la calidad.

13. Other Business / Otros Asuntos

1) Introduction and Welcome

On behalf of the SIM President Felipe Urresta, who could not attend the meeting, Steve Carpenter welcomed the Council Members.

2) Verification of Quorum

The quorum was verified, nine members of council being present.

3) Approval of Agenda

The agenda was approved with the following ammendment:
Item 6: TC and PDC chairmen report.

4) Approval of the Minutes from previous Council Meeting

The minutes were approved with the following amendments:

Title: Where it says, Saturday 14th should say Friday 14th.

Attendance list: Ismael Castelazo and Evelyn Vanegas names are missing.
Item 4.
Where it says "latter", should say "later".
The following paragraph should be added: "While the MRA does not specify a time limit for the implementation of the QS, the JCRB expects all RMOs to have a process in place to evaluate the MRA Quality requirements. For the time being, the CMCs will go to appendix C regardless of the status of the QS".

Item 5.
Where it says "coordinator" should say "chairman".
Where it says "reason" should say "reasons"
Item 6.
Should say: TC meeting - August 4 and 5 San Diego (together with NCSL meeting) To be confirmed.

Item 8.
Where it says "food" should say "health".

Council resolution 11.
Where it says "enroll" should say "send a representative to the QSWG".
Add: Each subregion should be encouraged to send at least one representative.

Council resolutions 12, 13, 14 and 15.
Where it says "nominated" should say "designated".

Council resolution 12.
Where it says "coordinator" should say "chairman".
Council resolution 14.
Where it says "alternate to the JCRB" should say "alternate representative to the JCRB"

Council resolution 15.
Where it says "liasson" should say "liaison".

5) Matters arising from the minutes:

Luis Mussio informed that he has the approval from LATU authorities to act as alternate SIM representative to the JCRB.

6) PDC and TC chairmen reports

PDC report by Yoshito Mitani follows.
PDC minutes are reporting some results of discussions from the meeting held in Miami. The PDC basically was considered useful those two subregional events in CAMET and ANDIMET, and agreed to continue organizing them in CAMET and possibly in SURAMET.
For that purpose, annexed is a format used as a reference program in previous events. Some information with respect to the classification of countries with respect to their economy should be reviewed, as Ismael Castelazo and Carlos Ochoa pointed out.
The purpose of this table should be reviewed by country and subregion, because it will help establish strategic planning for development, once we have the database on human resource available and capability. Additionally, it was reported that on the OAS scholarship program, CENAM submitted one proposal following the Council recommendation for 2002.
With respect to a financial support, there is no special portion that should be covered by participating laboratories as all support were asked to be covered by OAS. However the PDC needs to meet to wait for the OAS decision. It was suggested to discuss it in item 9.

Ismael Castelazo informed about TC Activities.
Ismael Castelazo pointed out that a better coordination between WG chairs and subregional representatives is needed.
Recommendation: besides other information on the needs of courses, it is recommended to organize courses after a comparison where training needs are identified.
Ismael Castelazo volunteered to try to put the subregional representtives (TC) together to establish an agenda of courses.

The meeting was informed that some MWG chairs asked for authorization to use SIM funds for participation in Key comparisons. The issue was discussed and it was agreed that SIM funds should not be used for Key comparisons except in special cases.

CR01/02: Participation in Key comparisons will not be supported with SIM funds, except for buying artifacts that could be used for other SIM activities.

After some discussions on the meaning of the terms Key and supplementary comparisons, it was agreed that it would be very useful to do an update of information for all SIM members, with the latest resolutions taken by the JCRB.
It was also proposed that this can be a good topic for a presentation in the GA meeting.
Ismael Castelazo will write a short paper on this issue to be included in the SIM website.

The point was also raised of the need to have an updated list of SIM equipment.
Ismael Castelazo will contact MWGs chairs and ex-chairs to prepare an updated list, which shall be posted in the SIM web site, including characteristics and location of the instruments.

7) OAS Project preparation for fiscal year 2003

It was reported that the 2003-year project has to be ready by April 15th. Steve Carpenter will coordinate a task force to prepare the proposal for the AICD.

8) Preparation of the work plans and detailed budget for 2002.

Steve Carpenter stated that the budget was approved by the OAS but reduced from US$ 250 000 to US$ 180 000.
Due to this reduction, Steve Carpenter informed that in the programmed activities, those by NIST will have a reduced budget.
This reduction will be covered with extra funds provided by the US delegation. Steve Carpenter asked for letters of support from each country. Subregional coordinators should pass this request to the subregional members.

9) Scholarship Proposal to train technical staff for NMIs.

Yoshito Mitani reported on the status of the program. Up to now, there has been only one offer from CENAM to host a program on mass.
As informed by Oscar Harasic, the program prepared by CENAM was already pre-approved by OAS, and final decision will depend on budget.
He also informed about the details he provided to the Committee in this case that should be incorporated in future presentations to be done to the Scholarships for Continual Education Committee of IACD, giving precise information about the scope of the course, the background and requirements to be fulfilled by the participants.
After official approval, one person from SIM, probably from CENAM, should coordinate the preparation of the announcement of the course, which will be made by the IACD.
The final selection of the scholarships will be done by a committee in which participate representatives of the agency (IACD), CENAM and some representative of the office of science technology.

For year 2003 Yoshito Mitani sent the request for scholarships program and received only the answer from NRC, who is willing to participate in the program.
Oscar Harasic will send all the necessary information to NRC.

10) Proposal of Cooperation with PTB

Willie May presented the proposal prepared by the task force, which is included as appendix….
The council congratulates Willie May and the task force for the excellent job.
Willie May in collaboration with Yoshito Mitani were designated to make further contacts with PTB to coordinate the final proposal.

11) Definition of Regional Key and Supplementary Comparisons.

This item was already discussed in item 6.

12) SIM Policy for the Quality issue

It was decided to take some actions to reactivate the QS working group. For this purpose it was decided the following calendar of activities at NIST:

July 30th, Quality System Seminars. Approaches for Quality System implementation within SIM.
July 31st, TC WG meetings
August 1st, TC meetings

Ismael Castelazo will coordinate these activities.

13) Other bussiness.

CR02/02: The document: Procedure for registration of comparisons, presented by Ismael Castelazo was approved. The final version will be sent to INMETRO to include it in SIM Web Site. Ismael Castelazo will send a copy to all MWG chairs.

NCSLi meeting.
Luis Mussio will contact NCSLi for contracting the booth stand.
Ismael Castelazo will look for prices in Mexico for the design and printing of the posters.
Luis Mussio will prepare an updated version of the Brochure.

It was agreed that it would be useful to rotate the persons attending SIM booth. Hermon Edmondson will send the name from a CARIMET member to attend the booth.

General Assembly:
It was agreed to send proposals of subjects for seminars or conferences during the GA meeting, to the INN.
Among others, the following were proposed:
Awareness creation seminar, including Metrology and trade, advances for the FTAA.
Metrology and global climate change.
The role of Metrology in reducing trade barriers (with specific examples).
Legal Metrology seminar.

Felipe Urresta will send a letter to INN with these suggestions, and the plan for further coordination work.
It was also reminded that according to the Statutes, the terms of the President and the Subregional Coordinators ends this year. During next GA it will be necessary to elect President, and the Subregions should submit the names of the new Subregional coordinators and representatives to the TC and PDC.
The Executive Secretary, acting according to the Statutes, will prepare the call and send it members.

Publications: Oscar Harasic informed that he has suggested to make a new edition of "Metrologia para no metrologos", in a bilingual edition. This will be coordinated with the publishers of the book. $3500 were already transferred to the editorial for this new edition.
Hermon Edmondson agreed to offer CARIMET support to vet the english translation.

Having no other items in the agenda, the meeting is closed.